Save Me, Stranger: Stories

In Erika Krouse's fourth book, the sparkling short story collection Save Me, Stranger, chance meetings prompt realizations and momentous choices.

These 12 first-person narratives are voiced by people in crisis, whom Krouse adroitly and compassionately connects readers to, despite their sometimes extreme cases. But encounters with strangers tender the possibility of transformation. In the title story, the narrator is taken hostage during a convenience store hold-up. Seeing that she is shielding her 10-year-old daughter, a teenage boy steps forward to take the woman's place--and is soon shot dead by the robbers. This single mother's struggle to string together seedy cleaning jobs fades into insignificance compared to the mission of learning about and memorializing her savior.

Krouse (Tell Me Everything) frequently focuses on young women presented with dilemmas, and travel is a recurring element, with stories set in Thailand and Japan as well as various U.S. states: Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, New Mexico, Ohio. Krouse doesn't shy away from contentious matters, including suicide, domestic violence, abortion, and the handling of Nazi loot and Confederate artifacts. Sex work and gun culture creep into a racially divided Midwestern town in "North of Dodge," while "Fear Me as You Fear God" adds a dollop of magic realism as a hotel ghost helps a woman confront her abusive husband.

Krouse exhibits tremendous range, imagining herself into a myriad places, minds, and situations. She often eschews tidy endings, leaving characters on the brink and allowing readers to draw inferences about what they will decide. Fans of Danielle Evans and Lauren Groff have a treat in store. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader and blogger at Bookish Beck

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